RAID drive replacement

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jake Lee
  • Start date Start date
J

Jake Lee

Generally speaking, in a RAID setup, if a single drive fails it would
seem ideal to replace it with the exact same make/model drive if
possible.
However, if this is not possible due to the age and lack of availability
ofthe failed drive, is it certain that the drive can replaced by a
different make/model one, so long as both the speed and the capacity are
equal to or greater than the original?

i.e. I could replace a 7,200 RPM 36GB drive with a 10,000 RPM 36GB drive
with no (apparent) problem? I wouldn't expect any performance gains from
having a single drive faster than the others...data integrity is the
single concern for my question.

I'm currently faced with this problem, and I'm getting some conflicting
info about the exact criteria required of the replacement drive in a RAID
system :(

That being the case, I'd especially like to hear from someone(s) who has
done this successfully in actual practice,...thanks!
 
I'm not 100% sure on the speed, but as for the size, it will be 'dumbed
down' to match the others in the array....no big deal. I've done this (but
the disk speeds were the same) successfully several times.
 
Generally speaking, in a RAID setup, if a single drive fails it would
seem ideal to replace it with the exact same make/model drive if
possible.
Yup.

However, if this is not possible due to the age and lack of availability
ofthe failed drive, is it certain that the drive can replaced by a
different make/model one, so long as both the speed and the capacity are
equal to or greater than the original?
Click to expand...

Nothing's certain.
i.e. I could replace a 7,200 RPM 36GB drive with a 10,000 RPM 36GB drive
with no (apparent) problem? I wouldn't expect any performance gains from
having a single drive faster than the others...data integrity is the
single concern for my question.
Click to expand...

Again, nothing's certain. A solid "probably" would be the best answer
anyone could give.
I'm currently faced with this problem, and I'm getting some conflicting
info about the exact criteria required of the replacement drive in a RAID
system :(
Click to expand...

I have yet to find a drive for an array that is no longer available
somewhere. Have you called your hardware vendor? We've replaced
drives five or more years old with little problem.

Jeff
 
I think the size of the new disk is the most important issue

I have a RAID5 consisting of 8 x 73.4GB Ultra160 Seagate SCSI disks. When one of them failed, I replaced the defective disk with a new 73.4 GB Ultra320 Seagate SCSI disk. It works fine because the transfer rate in Ultra320 has been reduced to 160MB/s by the backplane before it reachs the RAID card. I don't think it will be an issue even if you connect a Ultra 320 disk to an RAID card support up to 160MB/s.
 
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